Humanistic and existential therapies have a strong emphasis on authenticity both as a vital characteristic of the therapist and as something desired for the client. Psychoanalysis has also put increasing significance on authenticity as an important ingredient in the therapeutic relationship. I question and deconstruct definitions of authenticity in different modalities, to consider whether, despite differences in language, they amount to the same thing. Second, I investigate the limitations of authenticity, whether it is a relational or intrapsychic phenomenon, how fallibility applies, what are the limitations of self-disclosure, and whether authenticity can best be thought of as an embodied experience. Finally, I consider the practice implications of examining authenticity and whether there is a useful alternative in sincerity. Keywords authenticity, humanistic psychotherapy, existentialism, inter-subjectivity
{"title":"Authentic Muddle: Revisiting authenticity in psychotherapy","authors":"Katy Wakelin","doi":"10.53667/thea5277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/thea5277","url":null,"abstract":"Humanistic and existential therapies have a strong emphasis on authenticity both as a vital characteristic of the therapist and as something desired for the client. Psychoanalysis has also put increasing significance on authenticity as an important ingredient in the therapeutic relationship. I question and deconstruct definitions of authenticity in different modalities, to consider whether, despite differences in language, they amount to the same thing. Second, I investigate the limitations of authenticity, whether it is a relational or intrapsychic phenomenon, how fallibility applies, what are the limitations of self-disclosure, and whether authenticity can best be thought of as an embodied experience. Finally, I consider the practice implications of examining authenticity and whether there is a useful alternative in sincerity. Keywords authenticity, humanistic psychotherapy, existentialism, inter-subjectivity","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129281900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the current, highly-charged climate of institutionalised racial inequity, this paper is a response to frequent misunderstandings of how structural racism operates within our profession and spawns hindrances to dialogue. The paper illuminates some of the deep-rooted characteristics of structural racism and exemplifies the ways in which it manifests within the psychotherapy field, with reference to the Gestalt modality. Several Gestalt concepts will be drawn on to explicate enacted racism. The paper highlights the need for racial-oppression awareness and phenomenologicalcentred dialogue; for a reshaping of the very structures of our training institutes, by way of long-overdue policy change that integrates these themes into curriculums, along with proactive delivery of this in training. It feels important for me to emphasize that this paper is not a criticism of Gestalt theory itself, but rather it is an exploration of what happens in the application of that theory when it comes to the race-relational space. Keywords structural racism, white privilege and supremacy, aggression, receptiveness to the unknown, time, intergenerationality, racialised-body process, trauma, resilience, healing, figure/ground perception, gaffes, context
{"title":"Drawing on Gestalt concepts to cast light on structural racism in psychotherapy training centres and its enactment in the shared spaces between us","authors":"Sharon Beirne","doi":"10.53667/vkvl5368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/vkvl5368","url":null,"abstract":"In the current, highly-charged climate of institutionalised racial inequity, this paper is a response to frequent misunderstandings of how structural racism operates within our profession and spawns hindrances to dialogue. The paper illuminates some of the deep-rooted characteristics of structural racism and exemplifies the ways in which it manifests within the psychotherapy field, with reference to the Gestalt modality. Several Gestalt concepts will be drawn on to explicate enacted racism. The paper highlights the need for racial-oppression awareness and phenomenologicalcentred dialogue; for a reshaping of the very structures of our training institutes, by way of long-overdue policy change that integrates these themes into curriculums, along with proactive delivery of this in training. It feels important for me to emphasize that this paper is not a criticism of Gestalt theory itself, but rather it is an exploration of what happens in the application of that theory when it comes to the race-relational space. Keywords structural racism, white privilege and supremacy, aggression, receptiveness to the unknown, time, intergenerationality, racialised-body process, trauma, resilience, healing, figure/ground perception, gaffes, context","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"65 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131541896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The author presents the ‘Gestalt Action Research and Development’ model and method she has developed and applied on various ‘levels of system’. She illustrates how she has applied this meta-model and approach in driving the EI WISH programme together with refugee and migrant elders, their families, and other key stakeholders dedicated to well-being, human rights, and ageing in three Swedish cities. In this programme, she explores and assesses what supports and hinders ageing migrants’ well-being and their integration into Swedish society, demonstrating how research becomes ‘action’ leading to transformation. By applying Gestalt concepts together with the Action Research & Development (AR&D) approach, she explores the possibilities of designing more conscious and collaborative ways of working that honour diversity in needs and perspectives. Keywords action research, Gestalt cycle of experience, reflexivity, relationships, well-being, diversity, integration, learning alliances, mobilising stakeholders for collaboration, societal innovation and impact, field theory, cross-sectionality, learning alliances, ageing
{"title":"The Gestalt Action Research and Development Approach: Examining ageing with dignity as an example of integrating research into practice and impacting society","authors":"Sari Scheinberg","doi":"10.53667/wwrm3780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/wwrm3780","url":null,"abstract":"The author presents the ‘Gestalt Action Research and Development’ model and method she has developed and applied on various ‘levels of system’. She illustrates how she has applied this meta-model and approach in driving the EI WISH programme together with refugee and migrant elders, their families, and other key stakeholders dedicated to well-being, human rights, and ageing in three Swedish cities. In this programme, she explores and assesses what supports and hinders ageing migrants’ well-being and their integration into Swedish society, demonstrating how research becomes ‘action’ leading to transformation. By applying Gestalt concepts together with the Action Research & Development (AR&D) approach, she explores the possibilities of designing more conscious and collaborative ways of working that honour diversity in needs and perspectives. Keywords action research, Gestalt cycle of experience, reflexivity, relationships, well-being, diversity, integration, learning alliances, mobilising stakeholders for collaboration, societal innovation and impact, field theory, cross-sectionality, learning alliances, ageing","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127355755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Schulthess, A. Crameri, Margit Koemeda-Lutz, V. Tschuschke, A. von Wyl
Abstract: This article describes the process of developing a manual of therapeutic interventions of ten different modalities. With this manual, independent raters can identify the therapeutic interventions occurring in a therapy session. In research, this is called the control of treatment adherence. The article also presents some results shown by using this manual. A surprising finding was that treatment fidelity was rather low in all treatment modalities. Therapists in all modalities were identified as using between 4.7% and 32.5% of interventions specific to their school of psychotherapy. Nonspecific interventions ranged between 51.4% and 73.2% of all interventions identified. Between 14.8% and 24.8% were identified as interventions from other treatment modalities. Keywords: psychotherapy research, naturalistic design, treatment adherence, Manual of therapeutic interventions, Gestalt therapy, specific and non-specific interventions
{"title":"Developing a manual for identifying interventions in psychotherapy to measure treatment adherence in research","authors":"P. Schulthess, A. Crameri, Margit Koemeda-Lutz, V. Tschuschke, A. von Wyl","doi":"10.53667/pohx2780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/pohx2780","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article describes the process of developing a manual of therapeutic interventions of ten different modalities. With this manual, independent raters can identify the therapeutic interventions occurring in a therapy session. In research, this is called the control of treatment adherence. The article also presents some results shown by using this manual. A surprising finding was that treatment fidelity was rather low in all treatment modalities. Therapists in all modalities were identified as using between 4.7% and 32.5% of interventions specific to their school of psychotherapy. Nonspecific interventions ranged between 51.4% and 73.2% of all interventions identified. Between 14.8% and 24.8% were identified as interventions from other treatment modalities. Keywords: psychotherapy research, naturalistic design, treatment adherence, Manual of therapeutic interventions, Gestalt therapy, specific and non-specific interventions","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127775579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract: Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, Freire, and the Black Lives Matter movement. I then offer a case example and explore how socialization into whiteness can lead to everyday forms of anti-Black dehumanization by white therapists. I conclude with questions toward furthering this work in our movement. Keywords: race, racism, anti-Black, Black, oppression, privilege, intersectionality, awareness, consciousness, field
{"title":"How/can Gestalt therapy promote liberation from anti-Black racism?","authors":"Michelle Billies","doi":"10.53667/jgxu1644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/jgxu1644","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, Freire, and the Black Lives Matter movement. I then offer a case example and explore how socialization into whiteness can lead to everyday forms of anti-Black dehumanization by white therapists. I conclude with questions toward furthering this work in our movement. Keywords: race, racism, anti-Black, Black, oppression, privilege, intersectionality, awareness, consciousness, field","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132630920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract: The emergence of COVID-19 has confronted the world with new challenges that ask for creative adjustments. This is also the case in the therapeutic world, including how Gestalt therapy is practised under pandemic conditions. In this paper I discuss several experiences and reflections that occurred to me in the first half of 2020. For instance, I point out that the Gestalt therapy concept of the boundary appears insufficient to adequately understand the entanglement of world and person. I also report on some therapeutic situations and how my clients and I tried to cope creatively with the given circumstances. Keywords: as-if body loop, atmosphere, boundary, compassion, connection, core affect, COVID-19, coronavirus, creative adjustment, fantasy, internal/external, lived body, object constancy, touch
{"title":"There is no inside/outside: on the entanglement of bodily self and biosocial environment as a basis for connectedness and compassion in times of COVID-19","authors":"Frank-M. Staemmler","doi":"10.53667/snen5516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/snen5516","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The emergence of COVID-19 has confronted the world with new challenges that ask for creative adjustments. This is also the case in the therapeutic world, including how Gestalt therapy is practised under pandemic conditions. In this paper I discuss several experiences and reflections that occurred to me in the first half of 2020. For instance, I point out that the Gestalt therapy concept of the boundary appears insufficient to adequately understand the entanglement of world and person. I also report on some therapeutic situations and how my clients and I tried to cope creatively with the given circumstances. Keywords: as-if body loop, atmosphere, boundary, compassion, connection, core affect, COVID-19, coronavirus, creative adjustment, fantasy, internal/external, lived body, object constancy, touch","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"137 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134105140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Picó Vila, Heather Anne Keyes, Béatrice Valantin
Abstract: The practice of Gestalt psychotherapy online, accelerated by the current COVID-19 crisis, has raised questions around how Gestalt therapists adjust themselves to this ‘new’ modality. This article addresses: qualities of internet-mediated contact, the implications for our theoretical paradigms, issues around experimentation, and the experience of physical and technologically-enhanced bodies in therapy; from the collective years of experience of the authors in different countries and cultures. Keywords: Gestalt online, telehealth, telementalhealth, internet-mediated psychotherapy, e-therapy, online therapy
{"title":"Internet-mediated Gestalt therapy: excitement and growth in an online field","authors":"David Picó Vila, Heather Anne Keyes, Béatrice Valantin","doi":"10.53667/duxr1350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/duxr1350","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The practice of Gestalt psychotherapy online, accelerated by the current COVID-19 crisis, has raised questions around how Gestalt therapists adjust themselves to this ‘new’ modality. This article addresses: qualities of internet-mediated contact, the implications for our theoretical paradigms, issues around experimentation, and the experience of physical and technologically-enhanced bodies in therapy; from the collective years of experience of the authors in different countries and cultures. Keywords: Gestalt online, telehealth, telementalhealth, internet-mediated psychotherapy, e-therapy, online therapy","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126843152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract: In this paper the author tries to give a sense of how and why the phenomenological attitude, when applied in a field perspective, is useful and operates in and on the therapeutic dyad, thus having an impact on the client’s lived world. He starts by explaining the meaning of the phenomenological attitude in a therapeutical setting which he summarises as a deep listening and a genuine curiosity of the given of the situation. He then describes the therapist’s experience in the first person when engaged in a phenomenological attitude and its polarity of listening and reflecting. This attitude helps the therapist to meet their client differently, thus changing the whole field and possibly having a significant impact on the client. For this to happen, the author offers a pragmatic compass – the Secret Longing – which he has developed with Florence Belasco at their Institute and which speaks directly to the heart of the therapist. He details how it can be applied on a clinical level, supporting the therapist in working on their primary task towards the client when adopting a field perspective. For the therapist, when caught at some stage in a relational impasse with the client, this task consists in listening more and being able to perceive and welcome the Secret Longing which is operating in the relationship. This is precisely what helps to change the ‘intersubjective matrix’ from which the selves and worldviews of both client and therapist are constantly emerging. Keywords: phenomenology, field, Secret Longing, responsiveness, relationship.
{"title":"Ways and means of the phenomenological attitude in a field perspective. The Secret Longing: a pragmatic clinical compass","authors":"Vincent Béjà","doi":"10.53667/sxiy1441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/sxiy1441","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In this paper the author tries to give a sense of how and why the phenomenological attitude, when applied in a field perspective, is useful and operates in and on the therapeutic dyad, thus having an impact on the client’s lived world. He starts by explaining the meaning of the phenomenological attitude in a therapeutical setting which he summarises as a deep listening and a genuine curiosity of the given of the situation. He then describes the therapist’s experience in the first person when engaged in a phenomenological attitude and its polarity of listening and reflecting. This attitude helps the therapist to meet their client differently, thus changing the whole field and possibly having a significant impact on the client. For this to happen, the author offers a pragmatic compass – the Secret Longing – which he has developed with Florence Belasco at their Institute and which speaks directly to the heart of the therapist. He details how it can be applied on a clinical level, supporting the therapist in working on their primary task towards the client when adopting a field perspective. For the therapist, when caught at some stage in a relational impasse with the client, this task consists in listening more and being able to perceive and welcome the Secret Longing which is operating in the relationship. This is precisely what helps to change the ‘intersubjective matrix’ from which the selves and worldviews of both client and therapist are constantly emerging. Keywords: phenomenology, field, Secret Longing, responsiveness, relationship.","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117039733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
"Abstract: How can we understand the role of movement and kinaesthetic resonance in shaping our experience and knowledge? This paper gives a brief introduction to my current doctoral studies at Metanoia Institute/Middlesex University, where I am researching the experiences of psychotherapists. I have discovered my area of interest falls within Studies in Practical Knowledge, a growing research tradition in Scandinavia. This article presents some of the material I have gathered so far, focusing on working with embodied awareness in online Gestalt psychotherapy. Keywords: movement, kinaesthetic resonance, phronesis, Studies in Practical Knowledge, online psychotherapy."
{"title":"Phronesis and knowing through movement: working with Gestalt psychotherapy online","authors":"H. Kallner","doi":"10.53667/emkd6546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/emkd6546","url":null,"abstract":"\"Abstract: How can we understand the role of movement and kinaesthetic resonance in shaping our experience and knowledge? This paper gives a brief introduction to my current doctoral studies at Metanoia Institute/Middlesex University, where I am researching the experiences of psychotherapists. I have discovered my area of interest falls within Studies in Practical Knowledge, a growing research tradition in Scandinavia. This article presents some of the material I have gathered so far, focusing on working with embodied awareness in online Gestalt psychotherapy. Keywords: movement, kinaesthetic resonance, phronesis, Studies in Practical Knowledge, online psychotherapy.\"","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122591504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract: Science and community are changing their ways of looking at autism and at how persons with autism and their families may be best integrated into society today. This paper discusses ongoing changes from the viewpoint of a Gestalt therapist who has occasionally worked with adults on the autism spectrum. Keywords: autism, autism spectrum, neural sensitivities, neurotypical, neurodiverse
{"title":"Looking at autism now","authors":"S. Gregory","doi":"10.53667/lens1320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53667/lens1320","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Science and community are changing their ways of looking at autism and at how persons with autism and their families may be best integrated into society today. This paper discusses ongoing changes from the viewpoint of a Gestalt therapist who has occasionally worked with adults on the autism spectrum. Keywords: autism, autism spectrum, neural sensitivities, neurotypical, neurodiverse","PeriodicalId":103162,"journal":{"name":"British Gestalt Journal","volume":"387 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124738226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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